Recently Mrs. D introduced the kindergartners to the website Teach Your Monster to Read. The website itself is described as “a captivating online game that takes children on a magical journey, meeting colorful characters along the way and collecting fantastic rewards. When children are engaged, they’re motivated to learn and as they progress, they rehearse a range of essential reading skills; matching letters to sounds, blending, segmenting, tricky words and reading full sentences.”

Students really enjoy it and even talk to Mrs. D about how they are playing it at home. Best of all this is a free website and it continues to expand so as students become better readers they continue on more online adventures.

1st graders enjoyed listening to Mo Willems Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus, followed by creating their own online drawing using ABCya Paint. Students worked at using their mouse skills and their imaginations to develop their own ending to the popular story. Once their pigeon drawings were created, they were printed so they could be shared with their families. Mo Willems has a great handout that Mrs. D used for students as a guide on how to draw pigeon.